Custom Builder Weekly - Jun 24th, 2026

Inside a contemporary dogtrot | Flood-prone counties are losing homeowners | Buyers reject smart appliances

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Generosity in Dallas

I was in Dallas this week, moderating a panel at Dallas Market Center on how builders, architects, and lighting designers can work better together on custom projects. My panelists were builder-developer Bob Appert of Redstone Builders, architect Eric Johnson of Christopher Strom Architects, and lighting designer Mark Keilson of Oldner Lighting.

We covered a lot of ground about collaboration: how teams get built, where things tend to go wrong, what each discipline needs from the others to do their best work, and the practices they've each found that actually keep a project on track.

It was a good morning, and a great exchange of ideas. But what strikes me most is the generosity ... that three busy practitioners gave their time and hard-won insights to help make the industry better. That's how things actually get better.

Bob, Eric, Mark, my thanks to you all.

—Pauline Hammerbeck

Signals: What We're Tracking

Buyers are rejecting smart appliances, according to new research that found smart features drove just 2.7% of purchase decisions ... dead last, ranking behind even "none of the above." What buyers actually want: reliability (45%) and price/value (27%). The sentiment tracks the same across ages. [Full data →]

Heard!

“No one wanted me, and now they love me. I should go out of business more often!”

—Thomas Lupo, 72, on closing the American Wood Column Corporation, his family's Brooklyn business hand-casting columns, molding, and ceiling medallions since 1916. News of the closure sent artists, designers, and preservationists rushing to save its library of 9,000-plus molds, some dating to the 1800s.

Flood-prone counties are losing homeowners at twice last year's rate, according to new Redfin analysis, suggesting that concerns about flooding and related issues (like insurance rates, damaged homes, and community impacts) are driving where Americans are choosing to live. [See which high-risk counties are losing the most residents→]

Ultra-luxury condos are for sale on the site of a building collapse that killed 98 in Surfside, Fla., five years ago. The Dubai-based developer hired Zaha Hadid Architects to design the tower, but 18 months after sales launched, not a single unit has sold. What the out-of-market developer may have underestimated was local sentiment on a site the mayor of the community calls "hallowed ground." [Read more →]